On Thursday, the United Kingdom’s government announced that it would reduce voting rights to 16 to 16 for its next general elections. Moving encourages defenders who want to see the same change in Canada.
“It’s a step that should have been done a long time ago,” Jaden Braves, CEO of Canadian youth politicians, a non -profit organization in Toronto, told CBC News.
“I find it very unfortunate that Canada could not be a leader in this debate.”
Moving in the United Kingdom is one of the many changes that Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said that “to make sure that more people have the opportunity to participate in the United Kingdom’s democracy.”
According to representatives, the reduction of the polling period ensures that young Canadians participate in politics earlier and increase voters’ polling rate. But the inhibitors have previously stated that lowering the threshold would have a little effect on the general turnout and that there have been other ways to participate in politics.
Previous efforts fail largely
In the past, efforts have been made to reduce in the past at all levels of administration, but none have been realized so far.
Several supporters of young people launched a legal challenge in 2021, But it is still on its way through the courts.
The group claims that the rule violates two of the Charters of the Rights and Freedom: Article 3, according to which “every citizen of Canada has the right to vote for members of the sub -room members or the legislative meeting; and” every person is equal before and under legislation. “
Aamelia Penny-Crocker, a youth lawyer who participates in the court’s challenge, said she hoped that the United Kingdom’s migration encourages Canada to vote for 16 and 17 year olds.
“It’s great to see a country that clearly has a lot of contact with Canada, which will make this change, and I think it’s really good for Canada,” he told CBC News.
Penny-Crocker was 15 when he first participated in the court challenge. Now 19, he has voted in municipal, provincial and federal elections. But he says it is still important that the case is progressing.
“I really believe this is the right step for democracy, and I really believe that it is simply more democratic to give young people vote,” he said.
“Every franchise extension has been a positive thing in the history of Canada’s democracy.”
More than 30 students have signed an open letter to elected officials who are asking for a reduction of the voting age.
Municipal questions affect teenagers, says lawyer
In Toronto, 16-year-old Braves Lobbaa is a city council to transfer a proposal last fall to help the city explore the idea of lowering the polling period. He says “infantilia” that he and his peers do not have political say about things that are important to them.
Braves claims that some municipal questions have a huge impact on the lives of teenagers.
“Young people can’t even vote for their own school’s trustees, and they really represent them directly. Why should their parents choose those who represent them in high school?”
Elections Canada says People who vote in their first elections after 18 years of age They are likely to become lifelong voters. Penny-Crocker said that lowering the eligible age would force more people to vote for the first time.
“You are more likely to vote for the first time when you live at home instead of just moving somewhere or just moving,” he said.
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Legislative efforts to reduce the polling period
Both houses of the Parliament have sought to reduce the legal polling period in recent years.
Senate Marilou McPhedran introduced a proposal for private members at the Senior Parliament session, even though it did not go further than the first reading.
In a statement on Thursday, McPheedran welcomed the UK news and said that Canada should be the next country that reduced the right to vote.
“Expanding voting rights for 16 and 17 year olds does not only mean adding teenagers to voters’ reels, but about revitalizing our democratic institutions,” his statement stated.
“Canada has a responsibility to lead. Empowering young people in the vote is a concrete way to strengthen our civic cabinet.”
The invoices of some private members have also been introduced in the lower room. One such bill, proposed by NDP MP Taylor Bachrach, received support from Bloc Québécois, a green party and some liberal members of Parliament, but was eventually voted.
Members of the Parliament who voted against the Bachrach bill claimed that teenagers tend to participate in a policy that 18 is the age limit for other civic obligations – such as the connection between bonds (unless the consent of the parents) – and that age would lead to parties who are high schools.
Conservative MP Fraser Tolmie claimed that the reduction of the voting season would not affect the voters’ voting rate so much. He pointed out that turnout grew by only one percent in the 1972 election Where can 18-year-olds vote for the first time.
Similar changes from other countries
But the United Kingdom is not the first country to drop the right to vote under 18 years of age. Sixteen-year-olds in Germany, Brazil and Austria-to-axes to mention-can legally vote.
Most Canadian federal political parties give younger teenagers vote in their leadership elections and some Métis Nations allow 16-year-olds to vote for their region or regional representatives.
Also, reducing official voting rights is not a precedent in this country.
The federal voting age was set for 21 for more than a century from the lighting union until 1970, when it was lowered to 18.
Several provinces had reduced the right to vote – and sometimes for decades – in front of the federal government. Alberta first rejected her age from 21 to 19, in 1944. All provinces finally dropped their standard 18.
The UK switch can affect Canada
Valere Gaspard, a researcher at the Western University, said that the UK switch can be a performer of a similar change in Canada. He stated that Canada dropped his age to 18 only a year after the United Kingdom did the same in 1969.
But he said that the change here may not come as fast as in 1970.
“It can encourage more political debate. But at the moment, I think ultimately, changing it may need more political parties to be on board, or at least more young incentives to make politicians want to talk about it,” he said.
“At the end of the day it is a political decision, I think there must be people in power who would like it to change it.”
